Poe's POV
I sat outside with Elise for probably around 30 minutes, just talking about how happy we are here and trying to make her feel better. What her mother said was messed up, I didn't expect her to be ecstatic but she was hypocritical given that she was acting like people who she claimed not to be.
I went inside, leaving Elise to have time for herself and I see my dad and Kayleigh sitting awkwardly where we left them. I sit back in my spot and give her a disappointed look.
"Listen, I can understand why you would think this was a mistake, but it's too late. Elise and I are going to have a child no matter what you say and nothing you say will change the excitement we have for this. At the end of the day it is your decision if you want to help your daughter who admires you beyond words or if you want to become who you told Elise you would never be." I say calmly to her, staring at her. She is fidgeting with her fingers in her hand but then brings her hand out for me to grab.
"I guess she will always be my little girl, crude jokes I say aside." She says and I laugh, grabbing onto her open hand. "Poe you are the gentlemen I always dreamed Elise would end up with, I'm glad you found each other." She smiles at me and gets up.
"Now if you'll excuse me I need to go talk to my daughter." She says walking out the door, leaving my father and I alone, for the first time since I was 17.
"You've grown up a lot in the past 10 years." My dad says, taking a sip of his drink.
"The real worlds are tough." I say, cheering my glass with his and following his lead.
"You know we have to talk about when you left." He says and I stare back at the table, I knew this was coming it was bound to.
"You will learn this when yours is born, but when you're a parent you will do anything for your kids, you love them with everything in you. And I did a bad job at showing that when your mom died, a time where we were both grieving heavily I should've been there for us both, instead I let myself slip away and I pushed you away." He pauses, obviously emotional, but neither of us having enough strength to look at each other.
"When I walked into our house that day, all of your things gone, that honestly broke me more than having your mother die holding my hand. I watched the person I loved most in the galaxy purposely leave me and it was scary not knowing you would be alright." I feel a warm tear go down my cheek listening to the way my dad felt.
"I already was planning on leaving, I wanted to go to the academy for piloting, I wanted to make mom proud. But that day, when you told me mother would be so disappointed in me I couldn't help but feel as if it was all true. I was scared to go to the academy because I was scared I wouldn't be good enough. I had already screwed up my personality. So I left, not really knowing where I would go, and me being an amateur flyer I damn well didn't know where I was going." I say with a sad laugh and pause.
"I ended up on Kijimi." I say and my dad blows out a huff of air, "Damn kid, I had good reason to be scared." He laughs out, lightening the mood.
"I planned to only be there for a little while I got enough money to fill up the tank. However this woman told me about this company that paid their workers a good sum for little work. So I did it, and I got caught up in the business, I couldn't leave or else I was in danger by the owner. But then a girl showed up to where I was working, she was thrown out of a bar for causing a fight." I say smiling, thinking back to the first time I saw Elise.
"She was obviously annoyed by me and she was only like 17, but she was stuck on the planet for the rest of the night, I never got her name or where she was from. I had been on Kijimi for around 3 years at that point and yet she was the first person to ever ask about my past. She was the first person I ever told about mom and you, and that's the night I forgave you for everything, I realized we were both emotional and I was a stupid teenager. Talking really helped me air out the problems that I had been keeping in for way too long." I smile at him and he smiles back at me.
"I have three questions. Did you see this mysterious girl again? How did you get to the Resistance? and what the fuck was your job?" He says and I laugh, taking another sip of my drink.
"I was a spice runner." I say and he spits out his drinking, putting himself into a coughing fit.
"You're telling me that the son I was so worried about was out in the world selling spice. Kriff Poe." He says laughing and me and I join him, I can't remember the last time my dad and I laughed like this with each other.
"Well to answer your other questions, that night the girl helped me escape by mind tricking the people at the hangar. It was fucking bad ass, I was always spectacle about the force and then boom she did that." I say and my dad's eye widen, "And that's the story of the time I met Elise." I say and my dad's jaw drops.
"That's the best story I've ever heard, your mom would love her." He says and my heart warms at that.
"She would."
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Elise's POV
I hear the door behind me open again and this time it's unfortunately not Poe. My mom sits next to me, silently just like Poe.
"Poe can say some really smart things sometimes." Is all she says and I struggle to keep my laugh inside, not wanting to make this some silly conversation.
"He told me that not matter what I do you guys will have your kid, and it's my choice if I want to be a good mom or bad. Maybe he didn't say it exactly like that but I shortened it up for you, you're welcome." She says, still just trying to get me to laugh.
"Mother I know this is how you handle things but I don't think this is funny, stop fucking joking." I say, anger bubbling in me.
"Okay I'm sorry, it's just I want you to know that I think this is a beautiful thing, I think that you and Poe love each other deeply and that child is lucky to have you as a mother. But also, as a mother, you need to know that the news wasn't some easy thing for me to just immediately jump into a fit of happiness. Motherhood is freaking scary." She says, taking my hand into hers.
"I know, I just pictured that you would want to be there with me. All throughout my child hood you always talked about how you want to be there for me, you want me to feel comfortable enough with you that I could share things with you that you couldn't with your parents." I say, placing my hand on hers.
"And I do want to be there for you, and I also do know what went through my parents mind when I told them I wanted to run off and get married, they were scared for their little girl. I was all they had and they were protective, and you are all that I have." A tear goes down her cheek and I bring her into a hug.
"Everything will be okay, I have a partner who loves me and I have a damn good mother." She laughs, still hugging me. When she pulls away she wipes her cheek, "Damn right you do."
I smile and wipe away a tear I have too, we're a mess, "You know a special lady Princess Leia once told me that princesses don't cry." I say and she laughs, rolling her eyes.
"Well I am no princess, I am a queen." I burst out laughing, there's the mother I know so well.
"What do you think they are doing in there?" I ask my mom, laying my head on her shoulder.
"Probably crying just as hard as us." She says through laughter
"Did you go to his mother's funeral?" I ask, knowing they were good friends.
"Yeah I did, I should've brought you but you were so focused on training and there were no other kids, besides Poe. Ben was off with Luke and the ceremony was very small, it was nice. She would've liked you a lot." She says, looking at me with soft eyes.
"You think?" Poe's mother was his biggest inspiration and I wish I was able to meet her.
"Oh for sure, she loved bad ass women, why do you think she was friends with Leia and me?" She laughs, nudging my shoulder.
"When you came here for the first time that you remember, when you were 8, I took you to meet her and you were a little fire cracker. You kept showing her how fast you could run and your cartwheels. You also said that she was really beautiful, that was the first thing you said to her." She says and my eyes widen.
"I don't remember any of that. Did I meet Poe?" I ask, apparently I was missing out on a lot of my own memories.
"Yeah but he was a typical 13 year old boy, didn't really pay attention. But he was cute nonetheless, I made him run a bunch of errands for me and he was actually willing to do it. If only I knew that 14 years later he would knock my daughter up." I roll my eyes while she laughs at my pain.
"Mom I swear, if you dare ask me anything about my sex life I will get up and leave." I say, pointing to the door, causing her to crack up.
"Oh please at least tell me-" before she could finish I got up and went back into the house, closing the door on her laughter.
I walk back into the dining room with a smile on my face to see Poe and his father laughing with each other. Everything felt perfect.